Study Case: Evaluation of Water Stresses at the City Scale–The Dalian City

Abstract

Fresh water is one of the most important natural resources for the prosperity of a region. However, due to the fast pace of urbanization and industrial development, the problem of water shortage has intensified and become a major constraint in regional sustainable development. Hence, the scientific and rational regional water utilization and allocation plans should be formulated, especially among their industrial sectors. Consequently, an in-depth analysis of the WFs in various industrial sectors at a city scale was conducted in this chapter via the IO table. Both the internal and external blue and gray water footprints of 25 industrial sectors were quantified in Dalian City of China for 2012. It was also found that the total internal WF was the major contributor to Dalian’s total WF. The internal blue WFs shared the second biggest in the total WFs, suggesting that the major water supply of the industrial productions or the industrial intermediate products of Dalian were from the local water resources. In addition, on the basis of the quantifications of the blue as well as the gray WFs, further studies on water stress evaluation were conducted via the comparisons of the index based on the water productivity intensity for both the physical and virtual water in the 25 industrial sectors.